Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication Barriers Across Everyday Contexts

Autistic adults report differences in how they use and interpret nonverbal communication. These differences can support communication, regulation, and connection, but may become barriers when people judge them through conventional social expectations. Gender may add to these barriers because people often expect social expression to look and sound a certain way and may respond negatively when communication does not align with those expectations. Prior research has described communication barriers in healthcare, employment, relationships, and leisure, but less is known about whether these barriers differ by gender across everyday contexts. We examined whether gender was associated with self-reported nonverbal communication barriers across these contexts. We also examined whether age, autistic traits, and self-reported communication ability were associated with these barriers.

Autistic adults (N = 356) completed measures assessing nonverbal communication barriers across healthcare, employment, relationships, and leisure. Participants also reported their gender, age, autistic traits, and self-reported communication ability. We used principal component analyses to create context-specific composite scores. We tested gender group differences using ANOVAs and examined associations among variables using hierarchical linear regressions.

Transgender and gender-diverse participants reported the highest nonverbal communication barriers across contexts, followed by cisgender women and then cisgender men. Group differences were largest in relationships and healthcare. Barriers showed moderate to strong correlations across contexts. Gender remained significantly associated with barriers after accounting for age, autistic traits, and self-reported communication ability.

These findings support a relational account of autistic communication barriers. Gender differences persisted after accounting for autistic traits and self-reported communication ability. Barriers may reflect how others interpret and respond to autistic communication and are not fully explained by self-reported communication ability. The results highlight the need to examine how gendered expectations influence autistic adults' communication experiences across contexts.